Palampur: Officials busy with poll, illegal mining goes on unchecked

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, May 22

With the official machinery busy preparing for the Parliamentary elections, mining mafia has become more active in the Beas in the absence of strict checks.

The tall claims by the police and the Mining Department that no illegal mining is going on in the Jaisinghpur area of the Palampur region have proved hollow as the ground reality is entirely different.

During a visit to the areas in the Jaisinghpur subdivision by The Tribune this morning, dozens of trucks, JCB machines and tractor-trailers were seen extracting mining material from the riverbed with the help of JCB machines in an unscientific manner. Local residents said the mining mafia became active after the sunset and continued its activities till 7 in the morning.

The parts of the river worst affected by the illegal mining are near Sabji Mandi and Government Degree College. The water level has gone down by 5 to 10 feet and deep trenches can be seen. “However, because of the apathetic attitude of the police, Mining and Forest Departments, the illegal and unscientific mining has flourished in the past three months,” they added.

Though the state government has issued a notification banning the illegal mining in the Beas following orders of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and subsequent directions by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the practice goes on unchecked on the 2-km stretch of the river.

DC swings into action

The Tribune team forwarded the pictures and videos of the illegal mining to Kangra Deputy commissioner Hem raj Berwa this morning. The DC immediately swung into action and directed Jaisinghpur SDM Sanjiv Thakur to get cracking against the mining mafia. He assured action against the mining mafia, which has not only played havoc with the nature, but also caused huge loss to the state exchequer.

Later talking to the media, SDM Sanjiv Thakur said he had earlier raided many illegal mining sites in the Beas and imposed heavy penalty on offenders.

He added that as the illegal mining using heavy machinery was being carried out at night, it was not possible to nab the offenders.

“I have requested the Baijnath DSP and Mining Department to conduct joint raids in the Beas. Stringent action, as per law, will be taken against persons involved in the illegal activity,” the SDM added.

Notably, on the directions of the NGT, the HP High Court and the state government, the Mining Department is bound to mark the area allotted for mining with cemented pillars and red flags, so that the illegal practice is not carried out outside the leased area. But no such pillars or markings have been seen in the area.